Copilot is the AI assistant many people already have without asking for it. It sits on the Windows taskbar, appears in the Edge browser, and keeps showing up in Microsoft Office apps.
That familiarity raises its own questions.
What is Copilot, exactly? Is it the same thing in Windows, in Word, and on the web? Is it free? And how does it relate to ChatGPT, which everyone has heard of?
This guide covers the basics in plain language: what Copilot actually is, where it lives, what it genuinely helps with, what the free and paid options offer, what it remembers, and where its limits are.
No jargon, no hype, just a clear starting point.
What Copilot actually is
Microsoft Copilot is a chatbot built on a type of AI called a large language model. Like ChatGPT and similar tools, it generates responses word by word based on patterns learned from huge amounts of text, combined with whatever it has been told in the current conversation. There is a fuller explanation of what happens behind the answers in What Is an AI Chatbot and How Does It Work?.
Under the surface, Copilot runs on OpenAI's GPT-5 series of models, the same company behind ChatGPT, alongside Microsoft's own MAI model family. Microsoft decides which model answers a given request, so most people never need to think about it.
The confusing part is the name. Microsoft uses "Copilot" for three separate products:
- Microsoft Copilot is the free consumer assistant covered in this guide. It answers questions, helps with writing, and searches the web.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot is a business product that companies pay $30 per user per month for. It can read work emails, files, and meetings, which the consumer version cannot.
- GitHub Copilot is a coding assistant for software developers, and a separate product again.
They share a name, not a licence. Microsoft's own documentation confirms there is no universal Copilot licence covering all three. When people talk about "Copilot" without context, they usually mean the consumer one.
Where Copilot already lives
Copilot's most unusual feature is placement. Instead of being a website people have to seek out, it is built into things they already use:
- Windows and macOS, through a dedicated Copilot app
- Microsoft Edge, where it can summarise webpages
- The web, at copilot.microsoft.com, with no download needed
- Mobile, through iOS and Android apps
For anyone with a Windows computer, Copilot is already installed. Basic chat on the web works without an account, though signing in with a free Microsoft account unlocks chat history, image creation, and voice conversations.
One thing it does not include: the version built into Word, Excel, and the other Office desktop apps is a paid feature, covered below. The free assistant on the taskbar cannot draft inside those apps.
What Copilot can help with
Like other chatbots, Copilot is most useful for tasks that involve language: writing, explaining, summarising, and organising.
What it helps with:
- Drafting emails, messages, and other everyday writing
- Explaining unfamiliar topics in simple terms
- Answering questions with real-time web results
- Summarising webpages directly inside Edge
- Generating images, with 15 image boosts per day on the free tier
- Voice conversations, for people who prefer talking to typing
- Brainstorming ideas, titles, or names
For subscribers, it also works inside the Office apps: drafting in Word, analysing data in Excel, building slides in PowerPoint, and summarising an inbox in Outlook.
As with any chatbot, results improve with clear requests. Specific, detailed requests consistently beat vague ones.
Free vs paid: What each offers
The everyday Copilot assistant is free. What changed recently is how the paid version works, and it is worth knowing because older guides still get it wrong.
Copilot Pro, the old $20 per month standalone subscription, is no longer sold. Microsoft's support page confirms existing subscribers can continue until they cancel or support ends on 1 August 2026. Any guide still recommending Copilot Pro is out of date.
Paid Copilot for individuals now comes bundled inside Microsoft 365 subscriptions. As of mid-2026, the US and UK prices are:
- Copilot Free ($0 / £0): chat, web answers, image creation, and voice, with access to the latest models during non-peak hours
- Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99/month or $99.99/year; £8.49/month or £84.99/year): adds Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, plus 60 AI credits per month and 1 TB of storage
- Microsoft 365 Family ($12.99/month or $129.99/year; £10.49/month or £104.99/year): the same AI features and 60 monthly credits, with apps and storage shareable with up to 5 others
- Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99/month or $199.99/year; £18.99/month or £189.99/year): the highest Copilot usage limits plus exclusive AI agents, including Researcher in Word and Analyst in Excel
There is one catch worth stating plainly. On Family and Premium, Microsoft confirms the AI features go to the subscription owner only and cannot be shared. Six people can share the apps and storage. One person gets Copilot.
The AI credits matter too. One AI action in an Office or Windows app, such as asking Copilot to summarise an inbox, deducts one credit, and unused credits do not roll over. Sixty per month disappears quickly for heavy users.
Microsoft updates prices and plans regularly, so it is worth checking the official compare page before making any decision. The sensible path for beginners is to use the free tier on real tasks and only pay once the Office integration would clearly earn its keep.
What Copilot remembers, and the privacy setting worth checking
With personalisation switched on, Copilot stores key details someone shares, such as their name, interests, and goals, and brings them into future chats. Microsoft says it does not remember demographic or other sensitive data, and users can edit or delete what Copilot remembers, or turn personalisation off entirely. A Temporary Chat option avoids stored personal information altogether.
The bigger point is training. By default, Microsoft uses consumer Copilot conversations to train its AI models, unless the user opts out or falls into an excluded group. Users signed in with a work or school account, signed-in users under 18, and people who are not signed in are excluded automatically.
The opt-out lives under the profile icon, then Privacy, then "Training on conversation activity", with a separate toggle for voice conversations. Opting out covers future conversations only. Training and personalisation are independent switches, so memory can stay on while training is off.
Either way, the general rule applies: keep sensitive details out of chatbot conversations. There is a fuller guide in What Not to Share With AI.
Limitations and things to watch for
Microsoft is unusually direct about Copilot's flaws. Its own transparency note admits Copilot "could potentially generate nonsensical content or fabricate content that might sound reasonable but is factually inaccurate", and that even web-sourced answers "might misrepresent information". This is the same hallucination problem every chatbot has, and Microsoft's advice is blunt: review everything before acting on it.
A few limits catch beginners in particular:
- Voice mode cannot search the web. Microsoft's transparency note confirms voice requests do not trigger web searches, so spoken questions about current events can get stale answers.
- Free access varies at peak times. Microsoft does not publish message counts for the free tier; it says free users get the latest models during non-peak hours, so limits apply at busy times.
- The free version does not work inside Office. Copilot in Word, Excel, and the other desktop apps requires a Microsoft 365 subscription.
- It needs an internet connection. There is no offline mode.
The safest approach is to treat Copilot's answers as a starting point rather than a finished answer, and check anything that matters independently. AI works best as a helper, not the final authority.
How Copilot compares to other AI tools
Copilot sits alongside ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini as one of the major AI chatbots. The overlap with ChatGPT is bigger than most people realise, because Copilot runs OpenAI's models, the same company's technology that powers ChatGPT.
The real difference is placement. Copilot's edge is being built into Windows, Edge, and Office, so for someone who lives in Word, Excel, and Outlook, a Microsoft 365 subscription bundles AI with the apps and storage they already pay for. For someone outside the Microsoft ecosystem, ChatGPT or Claude offer more as pure standalone assistants. There is a full breakdown of the most popular one in Everything You Need to Know About ChatGPT.
For most beginners, the practical gap between these tools is smaller than the marketing suggests. Picking whichever is already at hand, learning it well, and switching later if something is missing beats agonising over the choice.
Final thoughts
Copilot is the AI assistant with the lowest barrier to entry, because for most Windows users it is already installed and already free.
Its strengths are convenience and integration: web answers, image creation, voice, and, for subscribers, real help inside the Office apps. Its weak points are the confusing product naming, the owner-only catch on shared plans, and the same capacity to be confidently wrong that every chatbot carries.
Two settings deserve five minutes from every new user: the training toggle under Privacy, and a quick look at what personalisation has stored.
Beyond that, the way in is simple. Open it, use it on real tasks, check anything important separately, and let actual experience decide whether a paid plan is ever worth it.
